Georgia O'Keeffe and Donald Davidson Pruning Trees 1919 - 1921

Here is a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz showing Georgia O'Keeffe and Donald Davidson pruning trees. What strikes me most about this image is the beautiful choreography between the figures and their environment. It is a deeply relational composition. Look at O’Keeffe standing in the foreground, almost statuesque. She holds a saw, a tool associated with the labour taking place, but her presence in the image feels very different from Davidson’s, perched on his ladder in the middle ground. There is a certain intimacy in the way Stieglitz frames this scene, capturing not just the act of pruning but also the quiet exchange between the figures and the landscape. The whole image has a gentle, soft quality in its tonality and texture that seems to point towards a vision of artmaking as an act of care and attention. It reminds me a little of some of the paintings of Agnes Martin, in their simplicity. Art is always a conversation, after all.